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Certification · 2 modules · 4 days

Innovation Facilitator Training

Deep practice in innovation tools — and certification as an innovation workshop facilitator.

In short

Innovation Facilitator Training is a four-day certification program, delivered in two modules, that prepares people working in product and business development to facilitate innovation workshops using the Clarify–Ideate–Solution framework based on Creative Problem Solving.

Duration
4 days across 2 modules
Format
Public course · In-company · Certification track
Group size
Max 25 participants
Who it is for
Those working in product or business development who facilitate innovation workshops, and anyone helping an organization clarify challenges and create and implement new solutions

About this program

This is a tools training for creating an innovation culture. If the people in your organization were energised to develop your ways of working, to find new business when visiting customers, or to implement the renewal your organization needs — what would that mean for your innovation capability?

People are the best resource an organization has for becoming more innovative. This program gives managers, developers and change agents concrete tools to raise participation and use that resource well.

Clarify, Ideate, Solution

For creating new approaches we use a framework based on the Creative Problem Solving process introduced by Alex Osborn in 1953. Clarify the problem or goal to find the key question; ideate to create and select ideas; form solutions by designing and analysing them. Fifty years of development have made it one of the most widely used and best-researched innovation thinking models in the world.

What you gain

From idea to prototype

Not just idea generation — the process carries through to a prototype you can test and evaluate.

Certified capability

Show you can design and deliver an effective innovation workshop and receive certification for it.

Immediately applicable

Every tool is demonstrated, practised, debriefed, and connected back to your own work.

Program structure

How the modules build on each other.

Module 1 — Innovation Essentials

2 days

Intensive practical training in clarifying, ideation and solution-forming tools, and the traps to avoid in innovation workshops.

  • Clarifying: Empathy Map, Force-field Analysis
  • Ideation: Idealogue, Forced Connections, Lateral Thinking
  • Solutions: Open Space Technology, Prototyping, Evaluation
  • Designing your own innovation session

Module 2 — Advanced Innovation Facilitation

2 days

Advanced group tools for complex innovation and change workshops.

  • Clarifying: 5 Whys, Challenge Map, Target Circle
  • Ideation: Gallery Walk, Attribute Listing, Context-shift Brainstorming, Heuristic Questions and Role Play, Picture Cards, Criteria Matrix
  • Solutions: LEGO prototyping, Value Statement, Dots

Tools and techniques

Every tool is demonstrated, practised and debriefed — you leave with a toolbox, not a reading list.

Empathy MapForce-field AnalysisIdealogueForced ConnectionsLateral ThinkingOpen Space TechnologyPrototypingEvaluation criteria5 WhysChallenge MapTarget CircleGallery WalkAttribute ListingContext-shift BrainstormingHeuristic QuestionsPicture CardsCriteria MatrixLEGO prototypingValue StatementDots

Outline

The shape of the program. Exact sequencing is adapted to the group and the context.

Day 1 — Innovation theory and tools for clarifying
  • Presentation on facilitating innovation; the facilitator's role
  • What facilitation is and when to facilitate
  • The innovation process and its stages, with interactive exercise
  • Clarifying tools: Empathy Map — interviewing the customer, building the map, storytelling
  • Clarifying tools: Force-field Analysis — customer pains and gains, setting the innovation goal
  • Creativity theory: what creativity is, and how to use the whole brain
Day 2 — Ideation and forming solutions
  • Recap
  • Ideation tools: Idealogue and Forced Connections
  • Practising the tools and analysing application in small groups
  • Solution tools: Open Space Technology, prototyping and value creation
  • Evaluating solutions against criteria
  • Designing your own creative session; principles for an innovation and change workshop
  • Key learnings and closing ceremony
Days 3–4 — Advanced module
  • Reviewing innovation theory and the core tools
  • 5 Whys — digging deeper or reaching for a higher goal
  • Challenge Map and Target Circle — building shared understanding of the challenge
  • Advanced ideation methods and criteria setting
  • Criteria Matrix for selecting ideas
  • Advanced solutions: LEGO prototyping, Value Statement, Dots
  • Designing and running your own innovation workshop with feedback

How the learning works

The same learning process runs through every JoyeLearn facilitation program.

Delivered in partnership with Grape People

Grape People is a Finnish company founded in 2003 by a team of facilitation pioneers. It develops organizations through facilitation and participative practice, and has helped hundreds of organizations build consensus and take action. JoyeLearn delivers these programs as an authorised partner.

The CSA Facilitator Certification Program is quality-endorsed by Education Finland, the national education export programme, and its quality has been audited by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (karvi.fi).

Lead trainer Pepe Nummi has facilitated since 1998 and led international and virtual teams since 1990. A co-founder of Grape People and the inaugural chairman of the Finnish Association of Facilitators, he developed the Idealogue method and authored The Handbook on Facilitation, The Handbook of Virtual Facilitation, The Handbook of Facilitative Leadership and Beyond Brainstorming – Idealogue. He has provided facilitation services in over 20 countries and trained more than 10,000 facilitators.

Source: program content on this page is drawn from the official Innovation Facilitator Training program documentation. Accreditation and trainer credentials are as stated in that documentation. We do not promise specific business outcomes, rankings or certification results — what we commit to is the program content, structure and learning process described above.

Frequently asked questions

Straight answers to what people ask before booking a program.

What framework does the training use?

The Clarify–Ideate–Solution model, based on the Creative Problem Solving process introduced by Alex Osborn in 1953 and developed over fifty years into one of the most widely used and best-researched innovation thinking models.

Who is this designed for?

People working in product or business development who facilitate innovation workshops, and anyone helping an organization clarify present or future challenges, create new solutions and implement them.

Does the process go beyond generating ideas?

Yes. Ideation is only the middle stage. The process carries through to forming solutions — prototyping your idea, creating value statements, and evaluating the prototype against criteria.

How is it different from Co-creation Facilitator Training?

Both use the same framework and a largely shared toolset. Innovation Facilitator Training is framed around product and business development; Co-creation Facilitator Training is framed around collaborative development across the wider organization and its customers.

Do I become certified?

Yes. After the four-day program you can be certified as a facilitator, evidencing that you can design and effectively deliver an innovation workshop.

Next step

Bring this program to your organization.

Every program runs as a public course, as in-company training tailored to your context, or as part of a longer capability-building track. Tell us the situation you are working with and we will suggest the right format.